IT'S Davao City's time to shine as hometown bet Art Galendez beat Simeon Papa of Imus Tenpin Bowlers Association (Itba) in their two-game knockout finals to capture 5th Datba Araw ng Dabaw Classic Tenpin Open crown at the NCCC Mall B3 Centrum.
Galendez, with a handicap of 15, hit a total of 407 pinfalls as against Papa's 394 to bag the championship purse of P30,000.
Galendez, a member of the organizing Davao Tenpin Bowlers Association (Datba), struck 193 in the first game over Papa's 169 then took the second frame at 184-175.
Papa settled for the runner-up prize of P20,000 while Datba mainstays John Galendez and Joshua Disuacido went home with P10,000 and P5,000 for finishing third and fourth, respectively. They also received trophies.
A total of 85 players joined the four-day bowlfest supported by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo and Vice Mayor Inday Sara Duterte.
From the main draw, the bowlers played eight games to determine the top 25 where John Galendez took the No. 1 spot while defending champion Lara Posadas of PBAP-Bowlmart gained the final No. 25th slot despite finishing 31st after the qualifying round.
"Posadas had an automatic slot in the top 25 being the defending champion. A series of knockout games then followed before the list was trimmed into the final two," Datba president Virgilio "Billy" Magdale told Sun.Star Davao.
The rest of the top 25 were Itba's Jun Nierva, Datba's Manny Nierra, Vic TE, Ian Ancheta and Tess Regino along with Datba-Prima's Man-Man Nierra, Datba's Papo Maghinay, Paquito Santos, Sammy Talaboc and Sonny Dimaano, Cetba's Vivian Padawan, Datba's Danny Usman, BTA's Bel Suelto, BALP's Archie Cornista, BTA-Prima's Clarence Tiu, Magdale, Datba-Prima's Ray Snyder, Datba's Paul Rabe, BALP's Rico Licarte and Datba's Ronald Martin.
The tournament was sanctioned by the Philippine Bowling Congress.